Evangelicia

Alicia's Bible Blog

 

 

2 Chronicles 11:3-4. "Say to Rehoboam the son of Solomon king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, 'Thus says the Lord, you shall not go up or fight against your brethren. Return every man to his home, for this thing is from me.'" For context, King Rehoboam was about to take up arms against his people who themselves were rebelling against his harsh way of governing and had just stoned to death Rehoboam's slave master. These words from the Lord, though, cause Rehoboam and the people to stop and return home. The Israelites were not wrong in questioning Rehoboam's tyrannical way of governing, but they were wrong to stone a man to death in anger, even if that man was a slave master. The escalation of tensions that led to this death then led to the king determining to make war on his own people. But God stepped in and warned all not to make war on their brethren, and they all listened.

 

There are times when our righteous anger is so inflamed that we "marshal our forces" to go against those who we are certain are in the wrong, and very often the ones we are set against are members of our own families. The love and connection we have with our family members can make our anger so much greater when they are not behaving the way we want them to. In times like this, it is best to step back and listen for the voice of God - rarely does He want us to fight our own brethren. This stepping back will require us to swallow our pride and accept that those we love may be wrong, and we must allow them to be wrong, if they are - they have free will, after all!

 

Notice that God says "this thing is from me." We do not know why God is allowing so much injustice, blindness, and evil in the world, but we know that we should not let others' sin pull us into sinfulness. Whatever is happening in our world right now (and something most definitely is!) is from God. He knows what He is doing and why He is allowing all things. We are being called to act righteously and with love even when our righteous anger at others' misdeeds is being stirred up.

 

This is a spiritual battle, a battle against principalities and powers, but we often only see those powers when they are acting through other people. Giving into our anger and going into battle against our brothers and sisters just accomplishes the devil's purposes. We can see this happening everywhere now, with factions and parties pitted against each other in escalating unwinnable battles in every institution, even the Church. Meanwhile, the real threat is from outside, and becomes more and more powerful while we fight amongst ourselves.

 

So let's stop fighting each other and trust that this thing is from God. We have to act as God wants us to act, especially when we are tested in these difficult times.